Using two RCTs in middle schools Pakistan, we show that brief, expert-led, curriculum-based videos integrated into the classroom experience improved teaching effectiveness: student test scores math and science increased by 0.3 standard deviations, 60 percent more than control group, after 4 months of exposure. Students teachers their attendance, students were likely to pass high-stakes governme...

Southeast Asia’s traditional export of relatively low-skilled products is facing increased competition. There is therefore a general need to upgrade production in the region, which requires a more skilled and educated labour force. Historically, education has not been emphasized in Southeast Asia but there are indications that this is about to change. This paper starts with a general discussion...

This paper estimates the impact of peer achievement and variance on math achievement growth. It exploits exogenous variation in peer characteristics generated at the transition to upper-secondary school in a sample of Berlin fifth-graders. Parents and schools are barely able to condition their decisions on peer characteristics since classes are newly built up from a large pool of elementary sch...

Macroeconomic Effects of Short-Term Training Measures on the Matching Process in Western Germany This paper investigates the macroeconomic effects of short term training measures on the matching processes in West Germany. The empirical analysis is based on regional data for local employment office districts for the period from January 2003 to December 2004. The empirical model relies on a dynam...

This paper measures the extent to which the presence of religious state-funded secondary schools in England impacts on the educational experiences of pupils who attend neighbouring schools, whether through school effort induced by competition or changes in peer groups induced by sorting. National administrative data is used to estimate pupil test score growth models between the ages of 11 and 1...

This paper shows that the design of education policy involves a potential conflict between welfare and social mobility. We consider a setting in which social mobility is maximized under the least elitist public education system, whereas welfare maximization calls for the most elitist system. We show that when private education is available, the degree of elitism that maximizes social mobility i...

Using unique survey and administrative data from Canada, we document that parental support personal savings substantially reduce student loan repayment problems. Developing a model of borrowing repayment, show nonmonetary costs applying for income-based assistance are critical to understanding our findings. Furthermore, eliminating these may be inefficient. Empirically, expanding Canada’s Repay...

There exists a long-standing debate in higher education on which academic calendar is optimal. Using panel data the near universe of four-year nonprofit institutions and leveraging quasi-experimental variation calendars across years, we show that switching from quarters to semesters negatively impacts on-time graduation rates. Event study analyses negative effects persist beyond transition. tra...

This paper provides the first analysis of the relationship between the language mix of Limited English Proficient (LEP) peers and student achievement, using detailed panel data from 2006 to 2012. Percent LEP has a negative association with mathematics and reading test scores, more so for non-LEP students than for LEP students. The overall language mix of LEP students has little if any discernab...

The rapid increase in primary enrollment seen in many developing countries might further worsen the poor schooling quality often found in these countries. I estimate the effect of enrollment growth following the removal of primary school fees in Tanzania and find that it led to sizeable increases in the pupil-teacher ratio and a reduction in observable teacher quality, but rule out a substantia...